The next Govt. must create opportunities for workers to become real economic shareholders

Jul 13, 2009 Letters

Dear Editor,

Pursuant to your lead news article, “GT&T workers must be given option to buy its shares,” (July 11), permit me to say that it is now common knowledge among Guyanese that when it comes to Guyanese workers, the PPP does not care. It is that plain and simple.

Workers have to be a relative, friend or associate of the PPP and its Government before they can ever be given the kind of favourable treatment meted out by the PPP and its Government.

Apart from the Government’s mishandling of the Skeldon Plant, I hope the folks in Berbice, a PPP stronghold, who are being subjected to constant blackouts 17 years after the PPP returned to power, are aware that Pradoville, an affluent neighbourhood for Guyana’s political and economic elites, has electricity generators on standby.

When I first read the news item several weeks ago about Government divesting itself of shares in GT&T, the first thing that crossed my mind was whether an offer was ever made to either GT&T workers or other Guyanese, at home and abroad, who might be interested in taking up the Government shares. GT&T has been making handsome profits for its parent company, ATN, and so I see no reason why Guyanese shouldn’t be allowed to share in the profits if Government would be so inclined.

The second thing that crossed my mind was a letter I wrote during the Cheddi Jagan presidency asking why Government does not consider retaining an interest in the bauxite industry with a view to allowing bauxite workers, as well as Guyanese at home and abroad, to buy shares in the company. When workers own actual shares in a company, they tend to put greater interest in the company’s well-being, and there tends to be transparency and accountability.

That letter was published by SN, which then facilitated a response from Chairman of the Privatisation Commission, Mr. Winston Brassington, who made it clear that Government will not go in that direction. And now that we have an idea of how much money overseas Guyanese have been remitting each year for the past 15 to 20 years, there is no telling the sort of positive impact investments by overseas Guyanese could have had in local private sector if only the so-called working people’s party and Government could have opened the door for such investments.

Based on my own street-smart calculations, I concluded that in the last 15 years alone, over five billion US dollars have been remitted (in official and unofficial amounts) to Guyana by Guyanese living in America, Canada, Britain and elsewhere. Now, if only the Government had a structured incentive-laden system investment plan, void of politics and corruption, by which overseas Guyanese could have been invited to invest in existing local companies or to help start up new companies, Guyana could have been better positioned in the last 15 years to create thousands of jobs and generate an inflow of greater foreign exchange.

But stupid politics just keeps getting in the way of sensible planning, thus confirming the observation made recently by Dr. Yesu Persuad that the reason why Guyanese in the Diaspora are not returning to help develop Guyana is because of politics.

It is worth repeating that there are overseas Guyanese who either have thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of dollars and even millions of dollars or access to those kinds of money that they can invest in viable projects in Guyana, but the Guyana Government lacks visionary thinking, is too steeped in corruption to be duly concerned about the masses.

Perhaps most Guyanese are now reaching the conclusion that, somehow, this ruling party and its Government love to boast about being ‘working class’ oriented, but actually prefers to have the workers on a certain level of socio-economic development that is below par rather than above par, for fear that if they were above par, they would no longer be called ‘working class’ and the ruling party and Government would then lose their right to boast about being ‘working class’.

I have long said that the ruling party and Government want to keep Guyanese in a dependency syndrome, waiting for hand outs and hand downs, so the ruling elite can engage in backslapping self-praise and propaganda peddling as they continually ‘rush to the rescue’.

And I am glad to note that the PNCR, despite its own dismal performance as the main opposition, is keeping the issue of special treatment by the PPP and its Government to ‘close associates’ on the front burner. Besides the troubling Queens Atlantic II deal and the outstanding balance of US$900,000 due on the sale of the National Paints, the one related to the sale of Guyana Stores is still open ended, because the principals reportedly paid US$3 million in cash with the US$3 million balance IOU, and while GSL was never knowingly advertised on the bidding block, it is the fact that the issue of the outstanding balance is engaging the attention of the courts that makes me wonder if Government’s move to the court was a sham? How many years have passed since the deal was sealed and the court move was made?

Mr. Editor, the more we spend time focusing on this administration it is the more we are seeing why Guyana is not making the kind of socioeconomic progress it is capable of, because our leaders are not interested in making Guyana and Guyanese prosperous; only a handful of people must have this experience, while the rest of the population must grow to depend on the ruling elite for their sustenance.

The only antidote for this politically inspired socio-economic malaise among the masses is for the masses use their power of choice in 2011 and give the current party the boot in the ‘seat of government’ and send them tumbling to the curb.

The next party in Government must seriously cater to the rights of workers by creating opportunities for them to become economic shareholders and political stakeholders.

Emile Mervin